Cork's Field of Dreams... a place where dreams become reality

In a classroom nestled away in a remote spot in Cork city students with Down Syndrome are eager to train, upskill and move into the workplace.

The Field of Dreams at Curraheen was established by a group of parents in 2017 under Down Syndrome Cork. The three-acre horticultural site had initially been set up to provide learning opportunities for adults with Down Syndrome. Now, the site has since evolved to not only serve training courses for adults, but also gives work placements, and tends to the needs of children.

Chairperson of Down Syndrome Cork Field of Dreams branch, Tara Casserly, said the Field of Dreams is a place where all children want to go. The site hosts a commercial-grade kitchen for cookery classes, three polytunnels to grow fruit and vegetables, a sensory garden, a remembrance garden, an orchard, and a care farm element for sheep and chickens.

Planning permission has also been sought to build an additional cabin to host two therapy rooms.

Self-sufficient

Ms Casserly said the entire charity relies on efforts of fundraising and volunteer work, which allows them to be self-sufficient and provide essential services to children and adults with Down Syndrome, including specialised speech and language therapy. The site also provides essential training for adults looking to go into the workplace.

Some €200,000 is needed every year to support that work.

“As soon as any of our kids comes through here, there is just such a sense of belonging, a sense of fun, possibility and excitement,” Ms Casserly told the The Echo.

“When my son Cian was born, and when you have a child with special needs, unlike other children, you go immediately to 20 years down the line.

“I had two typically developing children, and all I thought about was feeding and changing them. But when you have a child with special needs, you immediately catapult yourself to 20, 25, 30 years down the line,” she said.

The mum said it leads her to worry about what will happen, whether they would go to work, and if so, would they find work, and whether they would have a “meaningful focus in their life.”

“Sadly, in Ireland, often parents have to make that happen for themselves and what the Field of Dreams is for me personally, and for a lot of other families, is hope,” Ms Casserly said.

“Usually, across the world, the unemployment rates for people with Down Syndrome are astronomical, in the region of 90%.

“Here in Down Syndrome Cork, we have turned that on its head. We have a ready-to-work programme, a bright futures programme, and our success rate coming out of those programmes is in the region of 90%."

Gerald Oakes said he loved coming to the Field of Dreams because he was constantly learning.

“I want to keep [learning new skills] while I’m able to do it,” Mr Oakes said.

An avid rugby fan, he said he loved anything that had to do with physical exercise and moving around. So far, he has done eight half-marathons, and is currently training to sit his first full marathon.

“I’m always here, they cannot get rid of me even if they tried."

Adam O’Callaghan, aged 22, said he loved being able to learn how to access technology properly and shared a love for it.

“It is really helping me get into the workforce, and it is now setting me up for my work placement with Penny’s, which I am absolutely excited about,” he said.

Learning

Ms Casserly said learning for a small child, “especially a child with special needs,” is a lot in their life.

“Learning about your play and about your environment, I mean, isn’t it fantastic to take a stroll through the Field of Dreams, go down and talk to our chickens, maybe learn [in your] speech and language therapy about what the chickens are doing that day."

“Maybe go look at our berries and vegetables that are growing, go and look at the flowers that are coming through the garden.

“Learning can happen in that environment, and because we are building the therapy rooms here, we’re going to make that happen,” Ms Casserly said.

Cork mum, Cara Steinmetz, hopes the Field of Dreams will be an option in the future for her 14-year-old son, Noah.

“[It will be] when he is at that age when he would want to use it, and in that mode, we are fundraising endlessly to keep things going,” she said.

The Field of Dreams also receives funding from Apple, which includes the company giving a monetary donation to the organisation for every hour that an employee volunteers.

Ms Steinmetz added that Down Syndrome Cork brings a sense of community, and she believes that as a parent, “every hour that Apple contributes and every little bit of support we get” would make that future “a little bit more likely.”

“It is just so meaningful for all of the members who use this facility, as well as our shop and every other area of Down Syndrome Cork,” she said.

“But I would also say that one of the most important things is all of these young people who are building their careers at Apple are coming out and meeting our members, and they are seeing people with Down Syndrome. They can see their ability, they can see the contribution to the community.

“These are our future employers, and future people in our workplace, I think that is really, really crucial,” Ms Steinmetz added.

A parent’s fear for the future

“My son is now in his second year in Scoil Bernadette, so right now he’s just focused on staying there forever and ever,” Ms Casserly said.

“But when he was leaving primary school, he had to write his future self-diary, and he actually did write, ‘When I am older, I want to go to the Field of Dreams every week, but I will take Tuesdays off.’

“So the Field of Dreams was very much in his future. If you’re asking me where I look now, I am very, very confident that my son will have a meaningful work life, and that he will just be like his two brothers. He will have a job that he can go to, and I have every confidence that he will be very successful in that job."

However, she added that she still looks 20 years ahead, where her son is “further into adulthood” and realises that her worry is “who will mind my son, when I’m not here, when my husband is not here.”

“So as parents, the older we get, we just kind of push those long-term worries down the road a little bit,” Ms Casserly said.

“So the focus becomes we now need a reasonable, independent living solution, and that is actually a tsunami that is coming down the line for Irish society.

“There isn’t actually a solution there at all, for the many, many children, not just children with Down syndrome, but any child with special needs. Unfortunately, yes, the Field of Dreams has solved one problem for me, but as a parent, you realise as you go further down the line, there are other things to worry about.”

Commenting on the work at the Field of Dreams, an advisor in the administration of former US president Barack Obama has praised staff at Apple’s Cork campus for their work with local communities.

Alisha Johnson Wilder was visiting the city in her role as senior director for Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives at Apple and said volunteering and assisting within the community has always been the “north star” for the tech company’s employees.

The former Obama staffer previously worked as Deputy Comms Director for the US EPA and senior adviser at the US State Department.

Crucial

For her, Apple’s contribution to supporting the charity through volunteers and funding is crucial and something it “really prioritises as a company”.

“Our employees are so passionate about the places that they work and the places they live in, and so when we have opportunities like this to support organisations that are doing on-the-ground tangible work, it really, really, has an impact,” she said.

Fundraising continues for the Field of Dreams , which held its first gala on World Down Syndrome Day last Saturday. For information about Field of Dreams visit https://downsyndromecork.ie.